Bull Bar Cowboy Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 Last night saw one of my longest winch pulls ever…………… Give this some thought……………. Last night we were out rabbit shooting on a 600 acre valley farm. During the last month we have had a lot of rain here and the ground is sodden. The main track in and out of the valley is under water and the only way of access is over the fields and then drop down into the valley. The farmer had already told me that the water was draining from the hill sides and he had difficulty getting into the valley with his tractor to feed the cattle. We got into the valley OK by dropping down a long 40 degree field slope and into the 10 acre wooded area……….. we then progressed OK to the 20 acre fields on the far side of the valley and shot several rabbits …….. So far so good, however, our only way out of the valley was back up the 40 degree field……..I took a good run through the axle deep mud in the gateway that had been churned up by the herd and onto the lower edge of the rise, by which time my tyres had turned into clogged up slicks and we were going nowhere……… in fact it didn’t matter whether you had 30 inch elastic bands or 44 inch boggers ……… you weren’t going nowhere……… The only way out was to winch to the tree line …………… a quick check with my laser sights (poser) showed the distance to be 130 yards !............. So out came all the 12mm plasma ropes to see if we could make it ……………. 72ft off the winch drum………two 65ft extension ropes………..a 115ft extension rope…….. and finally an 82ft extension rope got us to the tree line and anchored off to a big old oak…………that a total of 399feet of 12mm plasma………..I was surprised at the amount of stretch when dangling on the end of 400ft of bowrope ………… I could feel the bounce ………….. I then pretty much winched continuously up the slope……………… the winch pressure gauge was indicating about 900psi (I can go to 2500psi), so that’s about 2 tons……….. the only break the winch got was when my son re rigged , which was about 5 minutes (maybe less), as we took out each extension rope……….. I was winching at full speed which is about 45 feet/min (engine running at 2000rpm and g/box in 4th with the t/box in neutral)…………….at the top, the winch motor was just about warm to the touch and so was the 33 litre hydraulic tank…………. On the way home I gave it a bit of thought …………….. how long would that have taken me with an electric winch, and would the motor have burnt out ? A quick look shows that the Warn 8274-50 would have been drawing 275 amps and would have had a line speed of 12ft/min at 4000lbs (1800kg) which is slightly less than my estimated load above…………food for thought. Remember I was also using 750 watts or lights (another 60 amps)………….. so I guess my battery would have died long before I reached the top of the field …………. however, with the hydraulics not using any current I was able to leave all the light on, which certainly helped a lot............... People take the p**s out of all the recovery kit that I normally carry ………….. this time it paid off big time Discuss Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disco_al Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 nice one, it's always good to know that the kit you have will get you out of 99% of situations, especially with that much weight and length of rope Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jules Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 I've been in similar situation when Dave Haynes hybrid go stuck in a field/bog in the new forest some 7-8 years ago and had to winch over 200m with two electric winches and it is do able but as you say batteries need to be tip top condition we had all the gear from both cars in use to get him out. Oh the hybrid was also suffering tuning problems and dead in the water. got to love a old faithful husky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve 90 Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 Good work. Glad it works well for you. I run 8274's, Twin XP motor front and single rear. On the final stage of the 3 peaks we winch'd 4 landrovers all using 8274's up a 60 degree slope of about 60 feet then through bumper deep bog that was 4 full drums of rope (125 feet on drum) so probably about 5-600 feet in all after two full days comping. Not one of them had an issue with this. Think its like everything else, a bad, poorly maintained setup will let you down, If its done right it will do you fine. The main trouble with the 8274 is that 95% of challenge trucks run them but only about half of those are built right and maintained well so you see lots of failures that are not really due to the winch! I must say that I have seen some extremely impressive Hydro setups in the right situation they are great, also seen a good number of very bad ones! The main reason I dont use them is a lot of situations I have been in electric is the only way I'd get out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
white90 Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 Ian the 8274 user would have drive assist to and if like mine with a crawler box walked up the hill with the winch not pulling at max or any where near it. horses for courses and all that I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ciderman Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 Blimey Ian ! I bet there wasnt a bunny in sight after that lot going on ?? I would of parked up on the road and walked in , The element of suprise , never know could of had a few deer as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happyoldgit Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 Blimey Ian ! I bet there wasnt a bunny in sight after that lot going on ??I would of parked up on the road and walked in , The element of suprise , never know could of had a few deer as well. Yup, me too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBMUD Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 Of course, without all that weight on board (winch, oil, cables etc.) you could probably have driven up. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bull Bar Cowboy Posted December 31, 2007 Author Share Posted December 31, 2007 Ian the 8274 user would have drive assist toand if like mine with a crawler box walked up the hill with the winch not pulling at max or any where near it. horses for courses and all that I guess. The surface was 3 inches or more of slick mud once the grass had been broken ............... I am fairly sure that even with large agri's, lockers, & crawler you would just be sat there with all 4 wheels spinning.............. Drive assist was tried but that had the net effect of pushing me sideways toward a nasty sideslope.............. I guess it was a bad call on my part to even go into the valley in those conditions....... Blimey Ian ! I bet there wasnt a bunny in sight after that lot going on ??I would of parked up on the road and walked in , The element of suprise , never know could of had a few deer as well. I didn't want to mention the deer Jase , just in case we have any bambi huggers on here..... Lets just say that the farmer does not like deer on his land ....................... BTW: These bunnies are well trained an creeping up on them does not produce good results ......................however, we find driving to be the better option as I can bring them into range quite quickly ................you certainly get used to opening BOTH windows on a truck cab before the copilot shoots with the Berreta....... otherwise it makes one deaf for the next half hour We went on to drive the upper fields and took out another half dozen .............. so I guess we must have been reasonably quiet.............. Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happyoldgit Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 I didn't want to mention the deer Jase , just in case we have any bambi huggers on here..... I doubt many can get close enough to hug 'em. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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